 So, the new EVO 16 from Audient has eight analog inputs and eight outputs, and when you take into account its two ADAC connections, that means it has 24 simultaneous ins and outs, along with two independent headphone connections. Fantastic. And its unique improved smart game feature, as well as that lovely colour display with the new motion UI, is impressive. And the more concerning amongst you will be glad of aspects like the two JFET inputs and the word clock capabilities. But there is one aspect of this audio interface that frankly shocked me, especially coming from a company like Audient, who are known for their quality. Hi folks, I'm Mike, and I hope you're well. Before I tell you why I think Audient may have lost the plot, I think it's important to understand a little bit more about this hardware, so don't skip forward, otherwise my reasons aren't going to quite make sense. Let's get started by taking a look at the hardware. With this new design, the Evo 16 can stand alone on your desk, can happily sit under your laptop, or by using the optional free rack ears can be rack mounted. At the front we see the first of our analog inputs. Now these combo XLR quarter inch jack connections are actually JFET inputs, meaning we can connect for example an electric guitar or bass, and add some analog colour on the way in. Moving along we see eight buttons for us to select and adjust our main inputs, as well as a 48 volt phantom power switch, input mode selector, our main smart gain button, and the colour display, more on these later. Finally, on the right we have our main control knob, monitor and headphone selectors, a customisable function button and our two headphone outs. To the rear we see our remaining six combo inputs, our two main monitor outs, and another six line outs that could be used for alternative monitors, outboard effects or guitar reamping. We then see the two ADAT ins and outs that increase our total in and out capability to 24 each. And for those who do have digital preamps, it's great to see that we have a word clock connection here to keep everything perfectly in sync. Finally, we see a USB-C connector to hook up the PC or Mac and our power connector. So let's deal with that colour display and what Audient are calling Motion UI. Essentially, this has made it possible to make most of your adjustments from the hardware itself. For example, by pressing button 1 to select input 1, I can adjust its gain, switch phantom power on and off, and change to instrument mode, with all of that being reflected on the display. Likewise, by selecting the main outputs or headphone outputs, I can adjust their levels independently. We can also see from the display that the function button is set to toggle between mono and stereo. However, if we do a long press on the main knob and go to the function button settings, we can see that it can be set to dim mode, alternate speakers, or talk back. Without wanting to go into too much detail, we also have powerful control over the EVO 16 via its software. From here, we can create master mixes from our inputs, as well as Q mixes that we can assign to various outputs, enabling us to create custom headphone mixes for different performers. These mixes include our main inputs, digital inputs, and five stereo mixes we can send from our door. So we can control the EVO 16 from the front panel or via the software. But there's one special feature where we need to use the front panel, Smart Gain. Smart Gain is not a new feature to the EVO line. I've covered it with previous models. However, with the EVO 16, it's evolved to something incredibly useful. In its most simple form, we press the Smart Gain button, then select our channel. We then press the Smart Gain button again and start to play our instrument. The unit then analyzes the input for a few seconds and sets the gain to a healthy level for recording. This is really handy when you're both the artist and the engineer, as the EVO takes on the role of engineer for a while, leaving you to play the part. However, the EVO 16 gives us a whole new meaning, as we can select multiple inputs, allowing the EVO to set the gain for all of them simultaneously while we focus on playing the parts. This is a huge workflow advantage and time saver, especially for recording small groups and of course, drums. Just initiate Smart Gain, start playing the drum part and in a few seconds you're done. Awesome. This unit ticks an awful lot of boxes, including some features that can't be found on any other audio interfaces. But to understand why I think Audient has lost the plot, we're going to have to visit Sweetwater. Sweetwater has a fantastic selection of USB audio interfaces, but when we narrow it down to those that have 8 ins and outs, we start to see some of the pricing get a little hefty. And of course, none of these have unique features like the Smart Gain feature. Now are the choices further to those that actually have 24 ins and outs like the EVO 16, and we see one priced at $1,495. The story is the same over at Tommen, where we do see a greatest selection at that spec, with the cheapest being $618, and that unsurprisingly has sold out. So with all that in mind, let me ask you a question. How much do you think this unit should sell for? All that thought? Yeah, that's what I thought too. So when Audient told me how much this is going to sell for, I thought they got it wrong. Because when this becomes available, it's going to be sold for $499 US dollars. Really? So if you want quality preamps and lots of them at the heart of a decent studio and budget is a factor, then it's simple really, buy this, follow the links in the description down below. Sure, you could shop around and you may find a kind of a cheapy unit, but it won't have this feature set, won't have this build quality, and it certainly won't have Audient's really well regarded preamps. Added to that, you have this expandability via ADAT. Now if you don't know exactly how to do that, then I recommend you watch this video right here, where I go into detail and reveal it all. Enjoy.